arknian empires wrath
by bad-larry
Summary: a story that has yet to be proofread, finished or properly spellchecked. the only reason i even posted it at this stage was i wanted a friend to be able to read it, and due to our positions on the globe, this was the easiest way to do it.


2nd year of vow (vardens open war)

the dream begins in a cave, lit by lava falls flowing past gaps in the walls. a black gate sits on the back wall of the cave, only stone on the other side. a opening on the opposite wall leads to a tunnel. a large stalagminte hangs from the ceiling like a natural support beam, the light of more lava glowing in the holes riddleing the lower five feet. between this stone sentinal and the portal lies a nest, four colored stones set amongst the dried grass within. soon one begans to shake, high pitched chirps emnating from within. cracks riddle the surface before a hole opens in the top. a forest green dragons head pops out of the hole. its eyes opened, revealing them to be a bright, firery orange. its gaze shifts to meet mine before a deep and powerful voice speaks. _"my son, save him"_

i look around for the speaker but see no one. "how?" i yell into the cave but everything goes black and soon i am standing in utter darkness. imeddiately i see two firery orange eyes staring at me through the black, the eyes of a dragon. _"you must find the rock of kuthian, the rock of the ancestors. open the gate, save him from the wrath of the arknirian empire, i beg of you."_ i detected great saddness and the mind began to slip away, a bonechilling cold seeming to drag the presence. _"death calls for me, i can no longer evade it. save my son."_ the voice yells seemingly from far away. i snap open my eyes, gasping for breath, only now do i hear saphira screaming my name. my eyes come in to focus and i see her staring at me with relief. "saphira? what happened?" she replied, her voice shakey _"i dont know, your mind, it vanished. then, then you stopped breathing and... i think you died."_ she finished somberly. we shared our experiences with each other. at the end she said _"he called the rock of kuthian the rock of the ancestors?"_"yes, does this mean something?" _"i know where this is. we should inform nasuada and leave."_

dragons history in derania

my name is Aramir. i am a dark green dragon with bright orange eyes and a blotchy scar on my left side, the remnants of my first encounter with a creeper at a young age. my life has been mostly uneventful for the fourteen months of its duration in the land of derrania. but my father has more of a history. he was from budaums first clutch, shortly after the end of the elf-wars. he made a portal to these lands at the age of 273 based on diagrams in the long forgotten draconic script. unfortunately it malfuntioned, trapping him and his third clutch of eggs in this world. he made a home in the caves the portal came out in and lived there for three thousand years. in that time he had decided the entire clutch had died. he left us in a nest next to the portal, and when he grew too large he moved to the top of the mountain. shortly after groups of humans moved into the nearby plains.

there were thirty four seven clans in total and shortly afterwards named their clans after animals that lived in the area. three still survive today. the first and largest is the wolf clan. the second and smallest is the dragon clan and the third is the scorpion clan. before i continue i will give more details about the three clans. the wolf clan is the mainly hunters who live in the center of the plains. they trade food with the others. what they lack in strength they make up for in teamwork, like their namesakes. but dont mistake my words, they are not weak. the scorpion clan lives on the edges of a desert. they are miners and potionmakers. and like the scoprins of the sands, often use deadly poisions in a fight. and lastly, my favorite. the dragon clan. expert smiths of both iron and, believe it or not, diamond. of all the clans, they are the stongets, despite their lack of numbers. it is said that a pact between them and my father give them their power. that it is their job, of keeping peace between my father and the clans that give them the strength and speed even elves must work hard to get.

anyways, back to the story. my father saw the dragon clan entrenched against an army of the cursed. feeling pity for them he flew down with the fury of a storm, fire and claws decimateing the ranks of undead. afterwards he made a deal. he would aid them in combat for a monthly offering. two animals were to be left on the hill next to his mountain, and each time he was satisfied with the sacrifice he would give the gift bearer speed and strength. six thousand years passed before the arknirian empire first set foot in these lands. at first it started as a house here and there on the edges of my fathers teritory. this is where the conflict began. father was feeding on a wild cow he had killed, when a settler, whether through fear or sheer stupidity fired a bow upon him. he was met with the back of a forepaw. father finished eating and returned home. a soldier came upon the corpse and the empire turned their eyes to the skies. the settlements grew in numbers, and looming stone fortresses began to grow on the edges of the clans lands. but their greed was insatiable, they tried to force the clans, at the time numbering twenty seven, 43 thousand in population throughout the land, out of their homes.

the dragon clan called for my father. and he came. 52 years battles were fought, the empire sheer numbers fell to trap, blade, bow, and poision. the tamer clan raised armies of tame wolves to fight as well. but the clans were fighting a losing battle. they even disguised themselves as creepers and lured the foul demons into battle, and managed to develop dynamite and use it as a weapon. but the empire was relentless. father was soon killed in the battle of the breartooth river next to his mountain. the empire built a stone prison, called it a 're-education camp' and put all the captured clansmen in to be brainwashed. they were released after being haled a 'citizen of the empire'. most had forgotten their old lives completely, but a few remembered the old ways. they went to their homes and resumed their lives the best they could. sacred traditions were practiced in secret, away from the prying eyes of the empires secret police. only twelve clans survived the war. seven hundred years passed and another nine were caught practicing their beliefs. they were shipped to the empire in chains and never heard from since.

Aramir pov 3 weeks before SH (saphiras hatching)

after hatching i lived four weeks off of rodents and insects before daring to venture out. my first stop was to the bottom of the waterfall going through my cave. i knew so little then. thankfully father had spent alot of his spare time giving history lessons to me while i was in my egg. i glided down on my stil forming wings and landed in the river. i sank quick, before learning to swim. unfortunately the current was too strong and i was swept downstream. when i was washed ashore i ran away form the river. i walked towards a small nearby mountain and lay down in the sun for a nap. when i woke the sun was just beginning to set and i resumed my exploration of what would later become my territory. i saw a small hole in the side of the mountain, not far from some ancient cobblestone steps and went to investigate. a hissing came from inside and a strange mottled green creature charged at me from the darknes. thus i met my first creeper. wiseley i tried to flee, but some of the blast still hit me. i limped toward the stairs, my left side missing alot of scales and even some of the top layer of muscle. when i got to the top i found a cobblestone table and promptly passed out.

i met him when i awoke. the sun had just began to rise. he was tall, heavily muscled with blond shoulder length hair. a light beard adorned his face and he wore fine iron plate pants and boots. his torso was mostly bare with leathet sling going from his waist to his shoulder. a leather sacthel was atachted to it at his waist with a pouch holding a clay water bottle next to it. the sling had many leather loops, aparently for more items to be attached. on his left shoulder amidst the tanned skin was a tatoo. it depicted a black dragon with eyes the color of the fire spewing from its maw. his name was gunvar. his eyes were milky white, yet the unseeing orbs did not seem to hinder him. he faced my direction as he badaged my wound. when roused myself from slumber i realised what was happening. remembering the creeper incident i struggled to get away but he held me down with startling ease, whispering words of comfort. i rleaxed and allowed him to tend my wound, i knew i would not live long without treatment. as he bandadged my side i noticed a pig and cow not far away. they had hand braided leads tied to a cobbleston post on one side of the table, my stomack growled hungily as i eyed the pig. the cow was too large for me to eat before decay set in. he laughed and finished bandaging my side just before i gout up and stalked towards my intended prey. just before i pounced it relised the danger it was in and i felt a niggling of guilt. this was not how a dragon got his food. i hit it with all the force i could muster and bit down on its neck, ending its life with a satisfying crunch. i dug in almost immiediately.

an hour later i was getting te marrow from the bones. it was a painstakeing task. i greatly looked forward to the day i could breath fire and digest the bones whole. the human approached and i felt him proobeing the edges of my mind. knowing i could easily overpower his concious if he attackrd i let him in with only a brief hesitation. he sent me thoughts of friendship and i replied with those of acceptence. almost instantly stange words flooded my mind, followed by their meanings and he sent told me to follow him in his toungue before telling me his name and aking me for mine. i gave him the name i chose from the list father game me when i was still in my egg. "ahh, draconic script. i am not the best with your kinds language, but i believe it translates into 'freeheart', a worthy name for a dragon." i thought on the new words he taught me before replying _"thank you. where are we headed?"_ "to my clans home, their spirits will be lifted greatly when they hear of you. it was thought the great dragons eggs had died travelling through the portal. when he was killed in the war, many of us lost hope". he told me of his clans history with my father and soon i could see a stone monolith in the distance. _"your eyes are whit, are you blind? and if so, how can you act as if you can see?"_ he looked at me and smiled before replying "i was born blind to answer your first question. the elder took me to the beartooth rivers source. liquid magic is still poolrd at the bottom of the waterfal from when the great dragon still lived ain the cave. i was cast into the waterfall in the hopes of restoring my sight. it did not work but something happened. no longer can i sense just minds, but solid objects as well." he sent me images of what it looked like as he said this.

the ground and other solid objects were somehow darker then the rest of the blackness surrounding the glowing of animals and insects minds. we walked in silence for several minutes before i realised what the monolith was. a large cobblestone chimney stuck out of the dirt. vines covered the surface and smoke trickled oit of the top. i caught movement out of the corner of my eye and noticed something i missed. a man was laying in a tuft of long grass. he was up in a flash and running towards the chimney. he was built simalarly to gunvar but was covered in grass to the point of almost no skin showing. what was showing had been painted green. "ahh, hrogar goes to tell the others of the good news. he is our best scout, not as good as those of the wolf clan, but none can run faster when the need arises." hrogar lept off of a small cliff on the side of the hidden buildings roof before vanishing. soon we went around towards the front. the clif was roughly thirty feet to the top, an ancieat cobblestone wall was in th front of the home with vines covering all but the door. about two hunred feet away i could see the edge of a desert and sevebty feet from the dwellings door was a good sized pond. before we reached it a goup of thirty two people came outside. men woman and a few childen stood looking at me with mixtures of shock and joy upon their faces.

soon an old man came out of the crowd and stood before me. his skin hung fom his wirey frame as if he was once covered in a heavy network of muscle. he had a heavy wooden cane in one hand that was covered in runes and looked almost as old as he was. his back was hunched over and the robes he wore were black with what looked to have once been fine orange ingraveings. he looked upon me for several seconds before speaking. "i am elder inrag, lorekeeper of the dragon clan." he inclined his head before saying "please, follow me into our home." he turned towards the small crowd and they parted almost reverently. i followed him inside to behold a large room. it was almost completely built of cobbleston and a large firepit burned in the center. a large spit hung over the flames with iron loops to hang pots beneath it. the pit was surrounded by log benches on three sides with carved iron grates keeping the fire from spreading accross the floor. seven doors dooted the walls, only on of the beining on the wall behind us. inrag led me to a door on the back walls left corner and we entered the new room. in one corner was an obsidian table with diamond corners and an old book sitting atop it. bookshelves were plased around it forming its own room. the book opened eerily, pages turning swiftly as we walked by, next to the bookshef was a stange stand with three bottles at the base, their contents bubbling away. several shelves were on the wall with strange looking ingredients and already mad mixtures resting atop. we turned into another doorway, after i noticed a simple bed next to the'alchemy lab'.

in the next room, more bookshelves greeted my eyes. the books looked far oler than the ones i saw before and had a vaguely familiar but completely different writing on them. a small wooden table surrounded by chais sat in the center of the table. the chairs had threadbare cusions on them and the table was littered with books, candles and other items. inrag wasted no time in removing chairs from one side and placeing them upon the floor. he motioned towards the piles of cusions and said "i am sorry if the accomadations seem inadequite, but this place was bult before rukmir saved our ancestors. please sit, we have things we must discuss." he turned and sat in a chair as i lay down on the cusions. he looked at me with his striking blue eyes and i looked back for several seconds. he then grabbed an old rope hanging from the ceiling and pulled upon it. instantly my keen hearing picked up the ringing of a bell in the main room. almost as quickly a woman wearing pants like the others came in. "yes elder? what do you need?" "gierina, would you please send in gunvar, he knows more about our guest than i." yes elder, i will find him." she said before leaving in a hurry. "what is your name young dragon?" he said as he picked up a stone Pipe and lit the contents. i rased my head proudly saying _"aramir, son of rukmir."_ "so, my suspicions were correct. your scales may be a different color, but you are the spitting image of your father."

someone knocked on the door and inrag said "come in" gunvar soon entered the room and inclined his head saying "elder, you wanted to see me?" "yes gunvar, you met our friend first and should be part of our meeting. please, have a seat." gunvar soon was sitting opposite inrag and the elder started "now, my biggest worry is the empire finding out of your existence aramir. your father killed over sevety three thousand of their troops in the war, not a good first impression for your kin." i looked at him with concern before saying _"you think they would harm me for my fathers actions?"_ "absolutely, during the war their citizens grew to hate your father, and eventually dragons as a whole. when gierina whent to one of their towns to trade last month she learned that hatred had deepened. most of the empire now sees the dragon race as a whole as mindless demons. things to be killed upon sight just for existing. " disgust crossed my face at the though. _but i don't understand, blood for blood never requires revenge on an entire should have been satisfied when they killed my father. its forbidden to involve family and friends."_

"they do not live by the code of your kin aramir. they know nothing of it." i shook my head and re focused myself on the topic we were suposed to be discusing. _"but what do we do? should we wipe them out before they find me?"_ "that option is beyond our abilities" gunvar said. "the clans are now only forty three thousand strong, only three thousand nine hundred and fifty two warriors are available to fight. while our numbers have dwindled since the war, their armies in our lands have grown. the last information we gained said they had one hundred foty thousand active soldiers in derrania." inrag spoke then saying "your only hope for survival is to stay hidden from their sight. thanfully derrania is riddled with large cave systems. the majority are mostly unexplored. the cursed go there in the day time to escape the sun, but in a few months we could secure enough of them to be safe. until then, you could live here in relative safety as long as you only go out at night." "i... i supose that will have to do fore now. but if they wish a war with the dragons, i will have to get the portal working. they will not be able to withstand the might of the dragons and riders. who knows, its likely the elves would join in."

saphiras pov 2nd year of VOW

nasuada reluctantly let us go, not that it mattered. if she ordered eragon to stay i woud have taken him in my claws and flown away. we were nearing our destination, a small mointain in the southern hadarac. _"you sure this is it saphira? it seems so insignificant"_ eragon said as i landed at the base. i looked around, the ancient ancestral memories confirming this as the right place. "_yes, this is it. there should be a way in somewhere. ill search the other side."_ i took off and was soon on the other side.

over an hour passed and we had searched almost the entire mountain when i t happend. a powereful mind contacted eragon from somewhere inside the mountain. _"how dare you biped! what brings you to walk this sacred ground!" _ i joined my mind as he responded "_i am Eragon Bromson, i come seeking entrance to the vault of souls."_ he responded with out fear iin his voice, and that made me proud of him. i myself was terrified as much as he was, though i would never admit it. _"fool! i will send you to the bowels of the earth and"_ before the presence, which i now realised was male, could finish, a female presence came form the mountain and interupted him. _"gelador stop, cant you see he is bonded to a dragon?" yeah, but..." "need i remind you that this very bond, however imperfect, stopped the elf wars? this biped has as much a right to be here as any dragon"_ me and eragon exchanged thoughts of confusion as the male presence did the mental equivelent of a sigh. _"i know, but you know me. even before we sealed ourselves i always got bored easily. i just wanted to have some fun."_ a second male presence joined with a mental yawn and said _"fun let me join in!"_ _"your too late brother, my mate already spoiled it."_ two more presences joined, one male and one female. the second female presence spoke next saying _"you have been mates how long again? you still argue like a young couple in mating season. and ronak, you would have spoiled the fun yourself. you spoke publically."_

the first female spoke next _"enough, all of you. there are two youg ones waiting for us to stop bickering. now, what exactly do you two want?"_ i wiped my amusement from my mind before replying _"we need to know how to 'open the gate'._ the first female was the one to speak this time _"trying to find rukmir and his clutch i assume? the fool tried to make a gate using an incomplete diagram and trapped himself on the other side. the worst part is he tried to take his eggs with him, not knowing going through a gate is one of the easiest ways to kill eggbound hatchlings."_ gelador spoke up next saying _" at least one of them was not killed, lucky little guy. he just had to wait several thousand years to get out."_ the second male took up the talking _"enough with the history lesson. we can tell you the location of in intact gate. you have to find the ruins on arknthaz, in the plateu the dragons nested in to the north. just use your fire on the gate, i doubt the magical signitures have changed too much to work in just a few billion years."_ confusion washed through my mind as i asked _"what do you mean?"_ _"you dont know? i suppose time will catch up with even the longest lived races. the dragons are the direct descendents of the drakvin, of which we are the last survivors."_ i mentally gasped as he continued _"about sixty two billion years ago the sun releaeds a large solar flare. on most worlds this wold not be a problem, but this one is significantly closer to the unusualy small star. we had three hours to prpare the spell that saved us. when it hit all the drakvin on the world, and anything too large to go underground, were killed by the radiation. the hathclings were safe in their protective shells but that was it."_ with his insatiable need to answer all his questions asked _"but how did a spell save you when all the others died?" "well, we learned of the event seven hours before it happened._

_we had no time to warn the others. we could not save our bodies so we disgorged our soul-hearts and fused them. then, to protect them from the radiation we used the last of our physical strength to make a mountain grow around us. we have been here ever since." "what was gelador talking about when he threatened to send me to 'the bowels of the earth'?" _the first female spoke again _"normally when someone comes close to our mountain we stay quiet. but my mate tends to search their minds as thye pass. if their a slaver he has a tendency to entice them over here and give the speech he told you." _again gelador spoke with disgust in is voice _"if you ask me, what hapens next to those scum is more merciful then what they deserve."_ _"as i was saying before i was interupted, he gives his little speech before waitng for a reaction." "they ussually just try to run but i dont let them. i really enjoy it when they beg me for their life. it doesnt matter, once they know of our existence, they could not leave alive. i feel pity for the ones that go so low as to beg. but then ill sometimes snare a leader of a slaving group, and when they offer me slaves in echange for their lives i laugh and they fall down tho the liquid stone in the center of the earth. before you get disgusted or outraged at me for killing them, think of all the peole over the years the slavers never captured? the dead do make poor slavers after all."_

i finally spoke, my impatience to get going leaking into my voice _"as much as i enjoyed our talk, we must get going. a dragon might die if we are not quick enough."_ the second female spoke as eragon got on my back _"will you come and talk sometime? as much as i like jerine's company it would be nice to talk with someone else."_ the second male spoke in an indignate voice as we took off to leave_"what about me?" "no offense my mate, but your a male, i wanted to talk with another female for a change."_

aramir pov 2 and a half months after SH

a steady routine of study was given to me, and during my free time me and gunvar became fast friends. on the seventh day of my third month with the dragon clan i made a desision. the ancient draconic knowledge i had bben given to study the month before detailed an imperfect, artificial version of the mateship bond. i had decided to use it with gunvar for many reasons. as i saw it, the day he found me near death at the scrificial altar he saved my life. thus the codes involving a life debt needed to be satisfied. it was unlikely i could save him in the near future, so the next best thing was to let him experience the life that was stolen from him at birth. this was not an easy task however, i could not restore his own eyesight. but i could let him see through my eyes. the artificial mateship bond would make this possible, but if performed wrong could hold many negative side effects. the most common side effect was a reliance on one anothers mind to live. if one of us died, the other would follow. another, less likely result would make us die outright, but only if our minds were not compatible. one day during the time we always spent together i spoke to him about my decision. we were in the part of the cave i now lived in. the cave was well lit with torches, and cobblestone now blocked off all but two enterances to my new home. on of the corridors was large enough for me to go through, it led deep into the mountains before comming to a secluded cliff for me to exit through. the other was a man sized tunnel with a solid wooden door. it led to the inrags study and came out behind one of his many bookshelves. a stone table was on one wall of the room covered in books for me to study. a pile of animal skins sat in the center, that was were i lay. he sat on a rock nearby. _ "gunvar, i need to ask you a question. how much would you risk to see the world through another's eyes?"_ his face, formerly alit with laughter at my previous statement turned deathly serious beforre he replied. "if i thought there was the slightest chance that i would see the world through more than anothers memories, even the risk of death would not stop me. i would still reach for that glimmer of hope." _"would you still want to see the world, even if it ment you would never know what it was like to use the eyes of a human? if you would only see it through the eyes of a dragon?"_ i could tell he thought i was just speaking in what ifs, as if he never believed it was possible, but he answered anyways " it would make me veen happier, for generations members of my clan have dreamed of seeing the world in such a way, why are you asking me these questions? this topic only brings sorrow to my heart." i heasitated, woried that if i started the ritual i would never wake up, but knowing of the joy it would bring my friend to see the world through more than just memories. perhaps the act would clear my life debt, but even then our bond of friendship alone would keep us together. i inhaled deeply and forced myself to speak. _"i can give that to you."_ shock flached across his face before he grew thoughtful. "such a gift cannot be without a price." _"its not, but if you are willing to risk death for it, it may be worth it. it will requre a bond, a heavily flawed version that occurs naturally between dragons when they choose their mates. it is used only between great friends. the ridersthemselves use this bond to keep the elf wars from re occuring."_ "if only deat can occur then my answer is yes." i broke eyecontact and shifted my forepaws before replying. _"death is not the only risk. the other negative side effects do not happen often. ones is that we will no longer be able to live if the other dies. another only happens if one of us loses concentration. we may literally become one mind, we will not be able to seperate our conciousness. its rare that those who this happens to avoid going insane."_ several minutes pased before he answered saying "i will need more time to think about this. i wish to be alone for a while." he promtly said goodbye and left. three days passed in which time i found it hard to concentrate on my studies. the time we usually talked was the worst. i had not realised i had come to rely on his friendship so much, but it reinforced my decision to bond with him. on the fourth day he returned, he walked tiredly into my cave and slumped on the rock he usually sat on before saying anything. "i have decided the benefits outweigh the risks. i will gladly accept your gift. as i know inrag would not want this he nows nothing. he thinks i am out hunting for the clan. what do i need to do?" _"we must begin by opening our minds to each other, leave none of our secrets hidden. hafter that i will begin the rirtual. if you resist at all, we will both die."_ he noded and we opened our minds. we began to live each others lives. i saw what he saw when he was born, blackness. the warmth of his mothers arms as she died form giving birth. i felt the water as the elder cast him into the river, and the warmth spread through his body as he touched the magic. i heard the other children tease him about being blind, and experienced as he had the pranks they pulled, both painful, and just humiliating. when he fought for the right to be a warrior i heard his opponent, the worst of his childhood tormenters, taunt him before the fight.

i felt the triumph when he was victorious, and felt him help up his humilated opponent. his sheer joy as elder inrag praised his combat skills before telling him the honor he showed at the end was even more important. i felt the helpless rage as the secret police searched their home during a raid and took one of their own. his pride when he was selected to be the next giftbearer, to honor my fathers help by bringing the montly sacrifices to the alter where he found me. i felt the blood of the beasts as he butchered them on the alter before dragging the meat to where my father died protecting them. then i felt his wonder when he found me, just before it turned to horror as he noticed my injuries. i experienced his whole life, every dream, every thought. no second was left unnacounted for. in my mind it took seventeen years for me to wake up as i heard him asking me what he needed to do. but in reality less than a few seconds had passed before i was looking at his bewildered face. _"we must continue, if we take a break we will die._" as he now knew all i knew he did not need to be told the next step. normally we would move our minds into the others heart of hearts. that was what made bonding with another species more dangerous. we had only mine to go to. we melded our memories together and sent most of our combined energy ther to power the spell, leaving only what we needed to live. the cold agony hit us before we fell into blissful sleep.

third pov

the next day the clan discovered their still, deathlike forms in the cave. at first they mourned, mistakeing their lack of movement for death. but aldor, the clans best healer noticed their faint, almost non existent breaths. he called for his assistants and they set to work, trying to discover what foul disease, or malignent poison held them at deaths door. two days passed without any progress and the healer declared them 'in the dead sleeps grasp." the next day, what at the time appeared to be a miracle happened. gunvars skin regained the color of life and their breathing quikened. they were awake.

gunvar pov

as i awoke, the first thing i noticed was the thoughts of another in my mind despite my barriers at full strength. they were foreign, the thought process copletely alien to my own. they held a cool, and calculating feeling, but powerful emotions were held back not far away. then my memories came flooding back. "Aramir?" i aske aloud as i sat up. i felt hands on my shoulder holding me steady as healer aldors voice said "easy gunvar, the dead sleep held you for several days. you need to rest to regain your strength." confusion flicked trough my mind as i was handed a warm mug and aramir began to laugh. _"the dead sleep? no, it had not touched us. we were bonding our minds healer, we were perfectly safe at that stage of the ritual."_

aramir pov

the healers face was contorted with confusion as elder inrag strode forward. his body was relaxed as if nothing was wrong but his eyes betrayed his anger. "it seems my suspicions were correct. you should not have told me before you two did the ritual." i narrowed my eyes at the sfive and a half foot old man. he now barely came up to my shoulder. _"you would have tried to stop us. it would not have worked, it would only have increased the chance of complications."_ the old mans anger broke free and he yelled at me "naive young dragon! did you even stop to consider what your deaths would of done to those who care about you?! did you think for a single second about how we would feel, about the pain you would have caused?! before you appeared, many of our clan was considering the del tuatha, of marching to our enemies with the intent of dieing in combat! that was how little hope we had left. but when you showed up at our door, a fire in our hearts, one we all thought the empire had trampled into the dirt long ago, had begun to burn. the once impossible dream of living free, of regaining control over our lands now seemed possible!" at the end of his speech he began to cough, and soon the only thing keeping him off the ground was the healers stong arms. the old mans face was covered in shock, his eyes staring bat something that was not thier as his left hand trembled over his heart. i got up and ran on legs still weak from the bonding to see if i could help, worried thought racing through my head. i was stopped by one of the healers assistants as he closed the old mans eyes for the last time. "he goes to the forever sleep. he was betrayed by his own heart." said healer aldor. i stood there for several seconds as th weight of waht happened hit me. i fled into the caves, ingnoring the healers as they called for me to come back.

gunvar pov

he left without warning, and i felt he was not concious of me watching his thoughts. i followed despite the healers protest, i did not care. the burning could go on without me. soon i came upon one of the walls that had been erected to keep the cursed out of the caves. broken stone lay everywher, but i had no time to marvel at my partners strenght. he was in pain, as bonded partners it was my job to help him heal despite my own agony at the elders death. i followed through the darknes with a torch in hand. many tunnels rddled the one i was in but i easily found my way. soon i found aramir, crled in the center of a large caver. he was keening, a dragons equivelent to crying, when i came and sat next to his side. i felt him glance at me before returning to keening into the darknes. we sat there for several hors before he stopped the mournful sounds. afte minutes of silence he said to me _"i am a murderer." _ i stood up and put a hand on each side of his face, forcing him to look at me. "aramir, his death was not your fault. his own anger did him in." he growled and got up, facing me angrily. _"how can you say that? it was my decision that cased his heart to betray him, i killed him as surely as if i used my own claws!"_ i stepped towards him, ingnorint him as he growled threateningly for me to back of and wrapped my arms aroud his neck in a friendly hug. his growl stopped and i could feel his suprise before i made him look at me again. "aramir, i have seen your soul as you have seen mine. you have a heart of gold, you would never harm your friends. inrags death was an accident, there is no way you could have known it would happen."

saphira pov

we had finally found the entrance to the ruins. we had been searching for nearly a whole week when i noticesd a draft coming from the back of one of the caves i had been investigating. at the back of the cave was a seemingly normal cave wall, but cold, moist underground air came trhough a small holl eroded into the surface. i called eragon and he used his magic to widen the hole enough for us to get through. an artificial corridor was melted into the stone and we followed. in no time the sandstone of the plateu was replaced by grenit with strange patterned sets of claw marks in seemingly random intervals. i studied the claw marks as we walked and noticed some were grouped together in obviously intentional sequences. something in my ancestral memories was trying to tell me something but i could not tell what it was. "saphira, what do you think of this place?" said eragon, pulling me out of my thoughts. _"im not sure little one. this place speaks to my ancestral memories, but i cant figure out why. all i know for sure is this place is ancient, older than farthen dur by far."_ we walked on farther, going deeper into the earth. we began to see cracks in the walls as the temperature began to increase. soon we came into a large room. the heat of the cavern was intense and eragon protected us with magic from a poison in the air. we could not see the cieling or any of the walls save for the one we came out of in the firey orange light that light the place. a large fissure was in the ground nearby, the glow coming from within and i looked inside. i pulled back with a yelp as the heat burned me, despite eragons wards. i showed him what i saw. a river of liqiud fir flowed miles below us, its movement slower than cold honey. we agreed to avoid these fissures and continued to look around. larged support pillars rose from the ground at regular intervals, the strange claw marks from before riddled the surface. piles of rubble dotted the floor in various sizes and some looked to have once been more stone supports. strange statues of metal and more commonly stone stood in seemingly random lacations. almolst looking like large headless humans at a distance. mast of them were twice the size of a kull, but some were so large i could have fit under their massive feet. we walked for a while, marvelling at the size of these ruins before we found it. the other side of the cave, it was riddled with caves of various sizes. the lumpy stone statues seemed to be concetrated in this are. i saw a pile of ash and poked it with a paw. the ash shifted and i felt horror at what i saw. part of a small dragon skull sat atop the ash. it was dark grey from age and ony the left eye and paert of the upper jaw was visible. i looked up at the other piles of ash. they were of a large range of sizes but i could occasionally see a bone here and there. sadness filled my heart and i looked at eragon before saying _"this ancient places, it a graveyard."_ he sent me thoughts of reassurance before we continued looking around. i saw a massive cave in the wall and we entered for a look. another tunnel greeted us, it was large enough for three dragons twice the size of gladr to atnd side by side with their wings extended. more of the eerily familiar clawmarks covered the walls. we walked for minutes before we came to a dead end. it was frammed with many materials. heavily carved, solid blocks of diamond, obsiidian, gold and iron met to make a large ring. we grew closer and soon it began to hum with energy. i glanced at eragon and he nodded before i let loose my flame.

arnos pov

time had helped me deal with what happened. a new elder was selected but no one stepped up to guard the secrets my father taught their clan. i requested that the books be given to me and the shelves were moved to my cave. after gunvar helped me realize it was not my fault he mourned my mentor just as much as me. we buried ourselves in the books for the next few months. when i grew too large to turn the pages myself he took over, the whole time reading the books through my eyes. at first, he was reluctant to read some of the books, feeling it was not right that he know the dragons forgotten secrets. but i reassured him, telling him our souls were now linked. i told him in my eyes he was a dragon, even if his body was different. the empire eventually foud out about my existence. and soon they realized the dragon clan was hiding me. we were all wanted dead now, and they moved to a cave connected to mine. the other two clans convinced the empire they were not involved, and brought the dragon clan supplies every week. i began helping with their hunts, reasoning that if gunvar was now a dragon, i was also now a member of his clan. as a result, i hunted more than once a week, and brought back everything i could carry to feed the clan. they soon accepted as more than just a clankin, but a full member. they tried to become closer to me, to spend time with me as clansmen should. but i would refuse and go back to my studies. they thought i was just a knowledge seeker and left me be. but they did not know how strong a dragons emotions ran. where they mourned their dead for mere months before forcing themselves back to the rigours of life, it would often takes decades for a dragon. when i reached thirteen months of age we had memorised the knowledge in most of my books. we also learned this was just a drop of water in the sea of knowledge my father found on the walls of an ancient drakvin ruin. i was out on a hunting trip in the mountains when it happened. i heard the sound of what appeared to be a great beast. i looked for the source of the sound but it echoed off the mountains. sensing danger i took off in what i thought was away from the horrible sound. what happened next stil embarreses me. as i flew around the corner i hit a large cloth baloon. it knocked me off course and i ended up landing upon a much smaller wooden platform. dazed i tried to get up but was soon tied down as several chains were thrown over my back i looked to see my agressor and my eyes widened in shock, it turns out i had been captured by the empire.

three days had passed since my capture. as soon as i told gunvar what happened he gave a quick explanation to the clan before takeing off after me. unfortunately the airship flew faster than he could run through the mountains and our connection weakened over time. they seemed to be taking me somehwere but we left derrania hours ago.i was on an airship, however crude the design. a few times i had tried to escape, but it only earned me more chains and beatings. once i tried to light the airship on fire, thinking i may suffer painful burns and a few bruises from the landing. but they were redy and quickly extingushed the flames. now i lay ther, over a hundred pounds of chains stopping all but the smallest of twitches. they even chained the captains bath tub to my face, causing any fire i breathed to scorch my facial scales instead of thier airship. at least the bath tub told me they were not expecting to catch me alive, it somewhat soothed my wounded pride. they were talking during the trip. mostly it was of no importance, but i learned of our destination. they would bring me to one of their 'most impressive fortresses' and present me before councilman morayn. apparently they hoped to get a larger reward for bringing me alive. soon we were landing, and i heard them stand in a straight line. a lone set of footsteps walked towards me before a smooth voice said "good job soldiers. bring it to my zoo and stick it in the largest cave, i have to make some arrangements with my blacksmith." "but what of the elephants?" "what do i care? kill them or sell them to a lesser councillor. i now have a demon in my possesion, if that does not make the emperor listen to me i dont know what will." an hour later i was in large cage. i managed to kill several of my captors on the way and was rewarded with another beating. i could hear people working around me but i still could not see past the bath tub on my head. i could no longer hear gunvars thoughts and an immense emptieness filled my heart. i eventually fell asleep to the pounding of the hammers around me.

saphira pov

the portal came out in a small valley in a mountain range. i shook my limbs, willing the deathly cold of the gate and looked at eragon as he happily yelled "it worked!." _"yes it did, now we need to find out where that dragons son is."_ i secretly hoped he would be the mate i hoped for as eragon climbed into the saddle. we took of into the sky. the first thing i noticed about this world was how few types of animals there were. cows, pigs, wolves, chicken, and sheep were in abundance, but that was all of the larger animals here. there were mice in the grass and a handfull of songbirds in the trees. in the water i could see the telltale shadows of fish in the water.. insects far outnumber the animals, i saw almost every type from home, but nothing else. we flew through the mountains and saw several forts littere with soldiers sporting bright red uniforms, but remembering who we were supposed to save the dragon from we avoided them. we flew deeper into the mountains, and soon no forts were visible. the sun had begun going down when a mind reached out for us. eragon and i quickley trapped it as i pinpointed the owners location. at first it seemed happy but as we trapped it it gre angry and began ranting curses with a strange accent. "foul sheep-humping trickster" and "hornerless scum" were some of the less colorful language invoveled. in lass then a minute i spotted him. his scent gave him away and i landed to pin him down as eragon assaulted his mind. he only took what he needed to prove he was not hostile. well, at least before we attacked him. eragon sheathed his beaten steel sword and sat down accrossed from the mans grass-covered face and smiled to convey friendship. the man just spit at eragon before looking bewildered as it was deflected to the lest by his wards. unfortunately for him it landed on my scales and i increased the pressure of my pin for a few seconds. eragon shot me a dissaproving look before saying "forgive us for attacking you, we did not know you where a potential ally." he responded almost instantly "you lost the chance for friendship when you attacked outsider. you are not wanted in our lands, we have enough trouble to deal with with the empire here." i spoke next saying _"we had to make sure your were not with the empire. please forgive me and my rider."_ an barely audible gasp left the man before he said "if you are a rider, prove it. rukmir said all riders had had hands that shone as metal." eragon showed the man his gedway ignaisia a and several seconds of scilence passed before he spoke again. "aramir said gunvar was a dragon in soul because of their bond... i will forgive you thiss time outsider, but be warned, attacking one of the three clans again will not be foregiven." i let him up and he blooked himself over. he was tall, his skin was dark green around his eyes and i could smell the dye. the rest of him was covered in fresh grass, tied to his body with died leather strips. he sighed sadly as he looked at the ground, mumbling something about losing his best spot before saying "my name is hrogar." _"my name is saphira, and this is eragon."_ "it is always nice to mett one of rukmirs kin. but the sun sinks below the horizon and the cursed will come out soon. follow me, my clan would like to know we have allies." we followed him a short distance to a cave and as we entered i caught the scent of another dragon. i told eragon this and he said _"maybe we just need to take him back with us."_ we entered a large cave. a stone table sat on one wall and ther others were lined with bookshelves. i pointed out to eragon that they had the same 'claw marks' from the ruins but our thoughts were soon interupted. "this cave belongs to aramir, i ask that you dont touch his belongings without his permission. unfortunately, to get to the only other cave sutable for a dragon we must go through." he continued through the cave, and we followed through another short corridor. "he used this room soley for the water souce in the back. other than that it is left untouched." he looked at me with a small smile. _"Aramirs is a dragon im guessing?"_ "yes" i grew excited, the thoght of meeting another drangon makeing it hard to remained composed._'when will he return?"_ his warm smile falterd. "i dont know, he was captured by the empire a few day ago. gunvar was following them but we lost contact with him yesterday. we plan to give im a few days but we are preparing for the worst." i could not speak, the amount of thoughts and emotins filling my mind overwhelmingly. eragon said what i could not. "preparing for the worst? hes been captured! what could you be possibly doing that is more important than finding him?" ander flashed through hrogars eyes as he replied. "he was taken outside our lands outsider. the search partie must be prepared. we need to get through the empires checkpoints without being spotted. our clan may have the bravest warriors, but we are not sucudal." he turned to walk away but eragons was something, a crystal blade was hidden underneath the grass of his suit. eragon grabbed his shoulder. but he suprised us both by brushing his hand off with ease.

aramir pov

i awoke when someone poured a bucket of putrid wanter on my face. i opened my eyes, growling angrily to se a chanmail muzzle being brought towards me. the pasty skin of the soldier somehow lost even more color as i opened my maw. he didnt even get to scream. i was rewarded by a hard hit to the head, and in my dazed state was unable to put up much of a fight as they put it on. my victims remains were removed and all but one left the enclosure. as he removed my chains i loked around. it was stone floor and bars surrounded me on three sides, going up into a dome. the dome itself lacked the rust of the other walls, telling me thats what the imperials were building. behind me was a wall of stone with a slight overhang for shelter. a long trough of water and another empty trough sat in the center of the place. as the last chain fell i growled threateningly at the man and raidsed a forepaw as if i was going to swat him with it. he screamed in terror, running to the exit as he wet his armor. the smooth voice from earlier interupted my laughter and i looked towards it. i saw an overweight man with the typical pasty white skin of an imperial surrounded by guards. "i have heard you demons can understand our language. i will give you one warning, dont even try to escape. this zoo is just the center of a large fortrees whith over thirteen thousand soldiers, not to mention the same ballistae turrets that have aready claimed one of your kind." i felt immense hatred for this little man, and did not try to hide it as i said _"and what is to stop me from crushig your mind right now? after makeing you order my release of course."_ "ah, that. im afraid your freedom can be only granted by the empire himself, hundreds of miles away. he has apointed me as your tender, and ordered that upon my death, no matter what causes it you are to be killed. and dont even bother trying to kill the soldiers in the fort. this is the homeland, more will just com and kill you dring th guard shift." i growled angrily, thrashing my tail helplessly at my prediacament. "temper tmper. dont worry demon, we will start beating you into submission on the morrow. for now, get some rest. you will need it."

the next day i noticed a metal barrier with tiny holes for viewing had been erected. the same young soldier from earlier cmae in and aproched me, armor shakeing in terror. _"what are you doing here again youngling? does the empire stoop so low as to send a hatchling to taunt a dragon alone?" _the young male, who upon closer inspection looked to be about twelve, wet himself. i wrinkled my nose in disgust as he choked out one sentence. "i... im supposed t..to remove your mm..uzle". "_then hurry up, despite whatever stories youve heard, dragons dont kill hatclings, no matter what."_ he looked at me with a bewildered face before i spoke again "_were you paying no attention to what i just said? let me spell it out for you. ill let yo take this thing off me, and you can leave. hurry up already."_ he gulped nervously as i lowered my head. he quickly went to the chains and began to unlock them. he went in front of my face and pulled off the chainmail muzzle. without thinking i streacthed my cramped jaw. as soon as i opened my mouth he fell backwards and screamed. i felt bead for the little whelp when i ralised he thought i was going to incinerate him and said _"for the last time, we dont kil younglings. now please leave, your giving me a headache."_ almost instantly he got up and ran for the door, but not before i realised urine was no longer the only waste in his armor. a dead cow was dropped from the ceiling into the food trough. i went up to it and sniffed it before laughing. _"so, drugging my food huh?'_ i yelled at my captors. _"amature attempt, a dragons nose can detect even the slghitest scent of poison. speaking of which, coucillor, you and your male "friend" were afully loud last night. although i must admit, i never expected you to be the 'taker type."_ i heard some of the guards laugh as he yelled angrily in the distance. apparently it was not common knowledge the councilor liked other males. i spent most of the day after that searching for weaknesses in my prison. a horn interupted my search just as the sun began to sink. soldiers soon surrounded my prision and i braced myself, expecting them to try and overwhelm me with numbers. instead i was suprised when a chain sunk a hook into my tail. i looked up to see soldiers dropping more to try and catch me. i reached back and grabbed th chain in a forepaw and yanked. the man on the other end screamed as he fell a hundred feet to my prisons stone floor. despite myself i cringed as he hit the ground. i dodged another of the barbed hooks, ignoring the pain im my tail. then the doors opened. i let loose my fire, burning several to a crisp as i dodged anothers pike. a hook snagged the membrane of my right wing in i roared in pain as the folded flesh was pierced. i grabbed the chain in my jaws and snapped it just before the one in my tail began to get pulled. i looked back and my eyes widened at what i saw. while i was distrated with the soldiers someone weaved it out the door. the largest creatures i had ever seen were attatched to the same wagon as the chan, and they were moving. i roared in agony as the chain was pulled taught and the hook sank deeper into the muscle of my tail. after what seemed like an eternity my hunches ht the sides of the door and the creatures stopped pulling. a muzzle was quckly put over my face as the soldier grabbed two handed iron hammers and began to beat me again. i would hear them say thinks like 'this is for jed' and 'take that demon!' but i barely heard it through the haze of pain. before i passed into blissfull unconsiousnous however, i realised what the presure underneath scales on the uninjured side of my tail was. the hook had almost passed al the way through.


End file.
